Theories of Personality

Chapter 11 Learning Goals

After studying this chapter, you should be able to:

  • Discuss the general goals of motivational personality psychologists.

  • Define and discuss deficits, motives, and needs. Discuss the relationships among these concepts.

  • Identify and discuss three key similarities between the motive approach and other intrapsychic approaches, particularly the psychoanalytic approach.

  • Discuss the Thematic Apperception Technique, or TAT. What was it designed to do? Discuss the relationships between the TAT and questionnaire measure of motives.

  • Discuss the difference between implicit motivation and explicit or self-attributed motivation.

  • Discuss the need for achievement and recent research on this need.

  • Discuss the need for power and recent research on this need.

  • Discuss the need for intimacy and recent research on this need.

  • Describe the key assumptions of humanistic personality psychologists

  • Discuss the self-actualization motive.